Author, freelance writer

Holiday Recovery Time

The holidays are always a super-crazy time of activities revolved around family, shopping, eating, drinking, more eating, more drinking, more shopping. In fact, I don’t recall having any alone time (including time to write) during the last two weeks of 2013. Obviously, spending time with family is key, but at some point, a writer needs to get back to work.

I’d hoped that this week, the first full week of January would give me some respite, but it seems that I’ve gone from one frying pan into another. This week has been about gearing up for the winter TV season, and Syfy has four shows it’s currently promoting: Helix, Being Human, Lost Girl and Bitten. And obviously, they scheduled the Q&A interview calls over the course of three days: Monday through Wednesday. Have I written anything other than my daily DVICE articles this week? Nope, because I haven’t had time. I go into each interview prepared, so that takes time and then the interviews themselves also take time. By the time I’m done for the day, that’s it – I am truly done and there’s nothing left for working on The Book of Revelations.

I’m already imagining next week to be equally as crazy because that’s when I’ll start typing up all these interviews (although I hope to have time this weekend, if I’m lucky). I hate not writing every single day, but I’m hoping to squeeze in at least two days this week where I can hammer out maybe 4000-5000 words. I’m so very close to the end, I hate slowing down now, but work is work, right?

I’m also getting ready for the big trip to Los Angeles next month, where I’ve tagged on a visit to Disneyland. And being the anal-retentive person that I am, and expecting crowds at the theme parks involved, I’ve come up with a working itinerary (okay, I didn’t come up with it, TouringPlans.com did) so I can see and ride everything I want to. I also needed to research restaurants, at least the nice sit-down ones that always require reservations (trust me, I’ve done Disney before and any restaurant that requires sitting down needs reservations up to 90 days in advance). So then again, there’s more of my time sucked away.

Tomorrow ends the round of interview calls (I hope), so I do think that maybe I’ll have Thursday and Friday free to work on writing that isn’t for DVICE (although that does come first, as it pays my bills). My weekends are spent mostly doing housework that piles up during the week and finishing up costumes for Gallifrey One (my main reason for going to L.A.). I tend to get obsessive about cosplay, though… But I made a goal to finish the first draft of The Book of Revelations before the con, so I’m determined. I’ve only got about 5-8 chapters to go. Surely I can do it.

Needless to say, I’m grateful to be busy. But I wouldn’t mind a day or two of downtime either. I suppose, however, that’s what wine is for: to make me forget that I’m so darn busy right now.